Nas's Gallery

A few years ago, I took a break from work, burned out and ravished. I got 3 months off and I went to the south of Spain, Granada, to repair myself.One sunny afternoon, I found myself atop a hill in Granada, Spain looking at the Al-hambra . A blonde haired Greek God type was painting the scene with big flourishes. I walked over to him, smiled and asked where I could buy paint supplies and then felt stupid. He asked me patronizingly (as was his nature) if I painted. I said, I’ve never done it in my life but I’m interested to try. He gave me quick and unintelligible directions to the store which I forgot even before I returned to my rock seat.A couple of weeks later , I was walking through a side street and there it was. The Art shop. I walked in sheepishly and was confronted by a teenage girl speaking in spanish at such a speed, that the only thing I wondered about was how was she breathing. So I just pointed at a box set of paint which was on sale, grabbed a book and a big brush, paid and rushed out.I returned that evening to the mountain and found the God still flying. I found a place so as not to disturb his eminence and started fearlessly to thrash paint on my paper. After an hour or so, I felt someone watching and lo and behold, his blonde highness was peering over my shoulder.I smiled, expecting gifts of encouragement. He said, for the first time politely,( like most nasty people do when they want something.) ‘could you give me the paint, I really need it’ were his exact words.I looked at him, the smile slowly disappearing from my face and then after what seemed like ages replied ‘give me 5 minutes to think about it’. He shrugged and walked back to his throne. After 2 minutes of anger, rejection, uselessness, pain , anguish I suddenly thought NO, I really enjoyed that one hour, I don’t even care if the painting is good or not. I walked over and said, ‘sorry I’m keeping them’. I was up on that hill a lot after that, and always with my paint book. We never made friends, the Greek God and I. But I can fairly say, ‘He would be proud of me’.